Local boat maker expands in Alabama

Thursday

DEMOPOLIS - At a time when many manufacturers are laying off employees, cutting production and even closing plants, a boat and barge maker has quietly begun production in Demopolis, Ala.

DEMOPOLIS - At a time when many manufacturers are laying off employees, cutting production and even closing plants, a boat and barge maker has quietly begun production in Demopolis, Ala.CTCO Shipyard of Alabama began operations in January in what had been a manufacturing plant along the Tombigbee River.CTCO's opening, which occurred with little to no fanfare, has revived an industry that left Demopolis more than two decades ago.CTCO is owned by Cenac Towing Co. Inc., a privately owned company based in Houma that makes and services tow boats, tugboats and barges. Cenac Towing, which was founded in 1931 in Louisiana, has more than <0x000A>450 employees and about $95.5 million in estimated annual sales, according to a company profile on Manta.com.

"We have already completed our first boat. We are three-fourths done with our second and 30 percent done with our third," said Paul Palmer, CTCO's acting manager.CTCO makes smaller towboats that are used to move barges up and down smaller rivers like the Tombigbee and Black Warrior. The company plans to eventually make barges, too. No timetable has been set for barge production, which Palmer said "has been put off for a few months."The Demopolis factory has about 15 employees and could eventually have up to 100 workers, according to documents it filed with local and state economic-development officials.How CTCO came to Demopolis might have more to do with the Marengo County forests that lie outside the city than the rivers that converge there."Over the last 3 to 3 1<0x2044>2 years, I probably showed that building (the factory) 20 times" to potential buyers, said Jay Shows, the former head of the Demopolis Industrial Development Board. "Maybe four or five of them had the means to buy it and do something, but nothing ever came to fruition.

"Then one day, I got a call from a person of interest who knew about Demopolis because he did some hunting in the area," Shows said.That call was the first contact with Cenac Towing, which then sent its representative to check the factory and the surrounding site.Under the overgrown brush between the factory and the Tombigbee River laid a hidden treasure - a long-unused barge slip.The factory was built in the early to mid-1980s as a barge-manufacturing facility for a company named Bergeron Barge. The barge slip was built to move Bergeron's barges from the factory to the river.Shows said Bergeron Barge did not stay in business long.After it closed, the building was bought by Waste Management, which later sold the facility to McClain E-Z Pack.McClain also went out of business, leaving the building vacant, Shows said.A California businessman eventually came to Demopolis to buy McClain's equipment and ended up buying the plant, too.Shows said the new owner had plans for the plant "but for various reasons, he kept putting them on hold."We worked with him for years to pull it off, but we never could. During that time, however, he allowed us to show the plant to industrial prospects."

When Cenac Towing representatives came, the vacant plant was a diamond in the rough."There were 101 obstacles that were there, but we just kept chipping away," Shows said.Debra Fox, executive director of the Marengo County Economic Development Authority, recalled the first time she went into the barge slip area behind the plant: "We took a tractor to get in there," she said.The overgrown brush and trees had to be cut, and the area had to be cleared and reclaimed before the slip could be put back into operation after more than two decades of neglect, she said.Last year, CTCO purchased the plant and its 88-acre site in the Demopolis Airport Industrial Park for an undisclosed price.Officials at Cenac Towing in Houma would not discuss the plant other than to say it is in operation.Shortly after opening, the plant's general manager, Kenneth Lackey, died unexpectedly. Lackey had spearheaded the effort to get the plant running.Palmer, who had been hired as the plant's operations manager, said Lackey's death stunned employees but they have pulled together."I would say things are going real well. We launched our first boat on March 5."Shows said the launch was low-key as the boat sailed down the Tombigbee to the Gulf of Mexico and then to Houma for some interior finishing work.

Fox said CTCO is starting small but will grow."This is a good company. These are good jobs with good benefits," she said.Demopolis Mayor Mike Grayson agreed. He said CTCO has already helped diversify his city's economy and work force."It is a tremendous deal to have them come into our community from a job standpoint," he said. "The [economic] news now is not that good, so if you have someone who is opening up a business and hiring people, it is outstanding."Much of Marengo County's economy is centered on the lumber and wood products industry, he said. Having a company that makes boats and barges creates jobs for welders and brings a new pool of talent to Demopolis.Grayson said he has been told CTCO could have 80 to 90 employees by the end of the year and eventually exceed 100 employees, making them one of the largest manufacturers in Marengo County."It is hopefully the beginning where we could attract a whole new industry," he said."We are trying to remake ourselves as the River Renaissance of the South. For years, we have been known as the Black Belt. That name is old and blase. We are trying to bring new life and new industry to the area."

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